John says, the angel who had ascended had a seal. It was a remarkable seal, and pertained to “the living Deity,” as opposed to all other deities flourishing in those times which had no life in them. Of course, it was a symbolical seal he saw, and represented something capable of making an impression upon the sealed.
But, beside the four angel-powers standing at the four corners of the earth restraining the four winds thereof, John saw a fifth, or “another angel.” Of this angel, he says, anabanta apo anatoles heliou, having ascended from sun’s rising. He did not see him, as the English version would lead us to suppose, in the act of ascending from sun’s rising; but having ascended at some previous epoch
The arena upon which the predicted operation of sealing the servants of the Deity was to be performed was “the earth and sea.” The reason given why the four angels were to restrain the four winds from blowing to the injury of these, is proof of this. The blowing of the winds upon the earth and sea, by injuring them with the tempests they were capable of exciting, would have rendered the work of sealing impossible.
The Laodicean State is parallel with the Seventh Seal from its opening to the Fall of Babylon after the appearing of “the Ancient of Days.”
A.D. 324 to A.D. 1864-8,
or thereabout.*
See Vol. 1, p. 428